Back in December I rewatched all of the old Wallace & Gromit films, and then thoroughly enjoyed their latest special that came out at Christmas, called Vengeance Most Fowl. You can see my thoughts about all of those in my comprehensive review post that I published shortly after Christmas.
Consequently, I thought I would further celebrate the amazing talents of Nick Park and the team at Aardman by checking out all of their other animated films as well, plus a classic TV series. I’m not interested in seeing absolutely everything they’ve done, as I don’t have the time or desire to do so, nor do I feel a strong urge to buy any of these titles I’m about to mention either. And this post isn’t sponsored of course. It’s just been fun to look at a selection of things that I either haven’t watched for ages or have never seen before, and I hope you enjoy reading about them!
Happy New Year! I hope you had a lovely time over Christmas!
Following on from Part 1 of my festive Favourites that I posted on Christmas Day, I’m now going to talk about a free exhibition I was given a tour of, give an update on events at home, and trawl through the many things I’ve been watching and listening to. And while the tour was courtesy of a PR invite, there have been no other incentives for anything to appear here, and all opinions are my own regardless.
So let’s dive into this bumper post, with an accompanying video that also features everything I mentioned in Part 1. I hope you enjoy!
This Christmas a brand new, long overdue, fabulously joyful, feature-length Wallace & Gromit story has just graced our screens, marking the 35th anniversary of their very first short film in 1989, and a full 16 years since their last one. So in celebration of that I’ve also rewatched their previous adventures recently, which have won several BAFTAs, Oscars and other awards between them.
In this post therefore, which isn’t sponsored as usual, I’m going to review their previous films, including the extras on the Blu-ray and DVD releases I own, as well as my first reactions to their latest movie. I hope you enjoy!
Hello there, welcome to my latest roundup for November. As with October, we’ve continued having work done on the house, but I’m happy to say that it’s now all over for the time being. And it has been worth it, despite the inevitable stress, disruption and cost involved over the past couple of months. The kitchen had been badly in need of refurbishment, so it’s now much safer, brighter and looks more modern, while the lighting in the living room has been improved and the outside of the house has been repainted. So it’s been lovely to get back to normal in time for Christmas. We may have more work done next year, as there are other things we want to do, but we’re not rushing into anything. This has been quite enough for the moment!
Despite all of that, however, I have been able to meet up with some of my friends for meals and entertainment, which has been a welcome distraction, and there are a few things I’ve been watching on TV and DVD. The meal and theatre show I went to with Emily were free PR visits for her to review, but nothing is sponsored to appear here and all opinions are my own regardless. So I’ve still got a fair amount to talk about in this month’s post and video, and I hope you enjoy!
Tim Vine is a brilliant stand-up comedian whose shows are crammed full of rapid-fire gags, mostly based on clever wordplay and puns, along with amusing props and silly songs. He even held the Guinness World Record for the most jokes told in an hour (499!), and has picked up the award for the funniest joke at the Edinburgh Fringe on a couple of occasions.
He’s also one of the few stand-up comedians who are still releasing DVDs, and his latest one, Breeeep!, came out in late November. So naturally I bought it to add to my collection, and figured it was a good excuse to go through all of his previous releases as well. None of this is sponsored or gifted of course, I just enjoy his comedy.
Every show lasts between 60-70 minutes, and all of his DVDs have extra features, including audio commentaries in most cases and some video diaries. Plus there are other jokes, sketches, songs and short comedy films, sometimes starring his support act John Archer and other friends. I much prefer his stand-up routines to his comedy films to be honest, but they do have some amusing moments and are still nice to see out of curiosity.
Unlike other comedians I’ve reviewed, however, Tim’s shows don’t have lengthy sections on particular topics or stories. Every gig is just a barrage of brilliant jokes that take in a myriad of subjects, and it’s impressive how he remembers it all. So these are quite brief reviews, with a paragraph about the show and another about the extras in each case. I hope you enjoy!
Hey there, hope you’re all doing well. October has been quite a busy month for me, but not in many ways that will be of interest to you this time. So I do apologise from the get-go that this post is quite short. It’s not what I’d expected, but it’s a direction I’m glad it’s gone in on this occasion.
The main reason is that we’ve started to have a lot of work done on the house, which is something we’ve been wanting to do for ages. It’s only now that we’ve found someone reputable, reliable, affordable and available to do it, through a personal recommendation, and we have the financial stability to be able to pay for it, now that various issues over the last few years have been resolved. It started off as a relatively small job that the guy had been recommended to us for, but as we’ve got to know him and seen the quality of his work over recent weeks, and as he has time to focus on us, we’re keen to make full use of him while we have the opportunity. So he’s done quite a bit of work on the exterior of the house, and currently we’re working on a revamp of the kitchen. My bedroom will then hopefully be next.
I also didn’t have any shows, meals, etc booked this month anyway, and the weather’s been a bit iffy at weekends. So while I have been out for walks now and again, I haven’t done anything exciting in London during October. That should change in November and December though, as I do have a few nice things in the diary, including some with friends of mine. We’ll still be having work done as well, but I should have much more to talk about.
So for this post and video I’m just going to mention a music box set I’ve been listening to and a few things I’ve been watching, none of which are sponsored and all opinions are my own as usual. Again, I’m sorry it’s so brief this time, but I hope you enjoy nonetheless!
Hello again! Because my 41st Birthday Favourites included the first half of September to cover the Paralympics, I had considered combining the rest of the month with October for a joint Favourites post later on. However, there are enough bits and pieces from the latter half of September that I can make a little post and video from, including another tasty free meal, a nice bit of comedy and some great factual entertainment.
So let’s get straight into it, as this won’t take long. As ever, nothing is sponsored to appear here and all opinions are my own, and I hope you enjoy!
Back in March I had a great time seeing a live show by the brilliant comedian Ross Noble, and followed it up by rewatching and reviewing all of his DVDs in May and June.
He switched to online releases from 2017 onwards, as he didn’t feel there was a market for DVDs any more, which was a shame, but at least we can still enjoy his hilarious improvised comedy that way.
So for this final part of my trilogy of Ross Noble review posts, I’m going to look through his streaming releases, along with various other bits and pieces I haven’t already mentioned in the previous couple of posts. I’m not reviewing absolutely everything he’s ever starred in of course, these are just the main things I’ve taken an interest in. And you can see a wide selection of clips of Ross on my Youtube playlist as well. So I hope you enjoy!
So another birthday month has rolled around. And while this time it’s not been quite as crazy as my big four-o last year, it’s still been busier than I expected, as I’ve been out for 3 enjoyable theatre shows and 2 nice meals, most of which have been free thanks to very kind friends of mine.
So I’ve got all of that to mention in this latest post and video, along with my PIP review decision, some films and TV shows I’ve been watching, and the sporting action in the Olympics and Paralympics.
As usual, none of this is sponsored to appear here, plus all opinions are my own, and I hope you enjoy. Let’s crack on with it!
Following on from my review of the Olympics earlier this summer, we’ve just had even more spectacular sporting action with the Paralympics in Paris, which I’ve been absolutely obsessed with over the past fortnight.
ParalympicsGB did extremely well as per usual, scooping up 49 golds amongst their 124 medals, and it’s their many achievements I’ll be focusing on in this post of course. But it was great to watch elite athletes from all nations – of which there were 4,400 competitors from 168 delegations in total – as they shared their fascinating stories and showcased their incredible skills in 22 sports, featuring hundreds of events across a myriad of disability categories.
There were huge audiences supporting them with enormous enthusiasm as well, which was wonderful to see. They generated such an electric atmosphere, in stark contrast to the lack of crowds in Tokyo’s Covid-hit Games, so these have really felt like the first proper Paralympics in 8 years.
And it’s also great that the Games were more widely broadcast around the world than ever before, including on Channel 4. Indeed, the fact that there was barely any time difference with the UK made it possible for us Brits to watch everything live on TV and online, and to have full roundups at the end of each day with the highlights programmes and The Last Leg. So it almost felt like a home Games again, the closest we’ve had since London 2012.
All of which meant there was a lot going on all day every day, which was daunting yet exciting to try and keep up with. So in this extensive review post – which isn’t sponsored by anyone and all opinions are my own – I’ll go through all of Britain’s medal winners along with some of my other highlights, and I’ve also made a Youtube playlist to go with it as well. I hope you enjoy!
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